<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I used this site way back when I was applying to colleges and just figured I would give something back. I graduated a couple years ago and was a trader for an investment bank in London until I got let go during the crisis. In the meantime I am just enjoying life and taking a couple months break until my next job starts.</p>
<p>In the meantime I have started convertyourbond.com, a site with free market insights to help students with interviews for wall street.</p>
<p>In the spirit of things, I am creating this thread for anyone with any interest in a career on wall street or the city of London to ask questions about pretty much anything that is on your mind.</p>
<p>You can also reach me at <a href="mailto:convertyourbond@gmail.com">convertyourbond@gmail.com</a></p>
<p>can you explain your education background and your career path? Like where you went to school, what you studied, and how you got your job as a trader in London?</p>
<p>Hi Gamma Hedge,</p>
<p>Thank you for your consideration and we really appreciate any advice you can provide. College Confendtial is truly an invaluable resource. I have a few questions for you that if you have a moment I would appreciate your input on.</p>
<p>1) This might sound silly but why is your name gamma hedge? I took a lot of prob. theory/statistics in courses, are there some assets following the gamma distribution used as a hedging tool?</p>
<p>2) I recently graduated from the University of Maryland with a BSc in Mathematics and a BA in Quant. Economics and I’ve taken an offer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a Research Associate in their Microeconomics, Monetary Policy and International Markets research division. Do you think experience at the Federal Reserve Bank can be helpful if I am interested in Investment Banking (Does the Bulge Bracket care if I have that experience)? Which area do you think would be most marketable to an IB (i.e. Monterary policy - effect of interest rates on assests, O.P.M.C or international markets - Forex) ? </p>
<p>3) Where will you be working next and why?</p>
<p>Kind Regards,
Sarah</p>
<p>Background:</p>
<p>Graduated in 2006 from UCL (BSc Econ), worked at a BB for 2 years on the trading floor trading single stock options and cash equities for a bit.</p>
<p>SarahLitke:</p>
<p>1) Uhm dont actually know why gamma hedge precisely, it just kind of popped up. With options, gamma is actually the sensitivity of the delta of an option to changes in the underlying stock. Delta is the sensitivity of the option price to changes in the underlying stock. So therefore gamma is the rate of change of delta in relation to stock price movements. Delta is the number of stock you need to hold to hedge your short option position (for calls, or the number you need short to hedge a long call option). But delta changes as the stoch changes, so that is where gamma comes into play when hedging. Its not about distribution, more about just sensitivities.</p>
<p>2) Its definitely a positive experience to have of course depending on the actual work. From that background you could def aim for a role on the trading floor, be it in FX or Rates products (mostly interest rate swaps). Yout quantish background also means most (pretty much all except for the exotic/hybrids) desks are open to you. I dont have too much experience with these desks but I can do my best to asnwer any questions you have about them. The hard part is going to be breaking in. You will either have to network or get a Masters later on and try through the grad recruitment cycle. </p>
<ol>
<li>Looking to do a masters</li>
</ol>